Neuropsychiatry
(London)

Effects of Biofeedback Training on Resting-State Electrophysiology and Emotion: Evidences from the Females with Premenstrual Syndrome

Author(s): Qing Liu, Wen-Juan Zhang, Wei Qiao, Yong-shun Wang

Aim

To investigate the effect of biofeedback stress dysfunction training on the psychophysiological and neural activity of women with or without premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

Methods

The present study recruited thirty women (18~30 years old, 22 ± 2.19) and fifteen women belong to PMS group (23 ± 1 years old), while the left formed the non-PMS group (22 ± 2 years old). There were nine women in each group (22 ± 2 years old) took part in the stress dysfunctional biofeedback training, which strengthens the sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) of EEG (12-15Hz) and decreases the surface electromyogram (SEMG) which lasts for two weeks (five days each week), while the left six women in each group (23 ± 1 years old) didn’t receive biofeedback training but they had to finish the pretest and posttest just like the training women did (in the luteal or follicular phases). The tests include two minutes frontal EEG asymmetry (eyes closed and open) task and emotional scales.

Results

The results showed that in the pretest, in the control group, compared with the women without training, the women with biofeedback training had higher scores on self-report of emotion, stronger electrodermal response (EDA) and higher heart rate (HR); compared with training women in the control group, the training women in the PMS group had higher negative affect. In addition, after the training, compared to healthy women, the women with PMS had higher EEG asymmetry scores which turned the negative score (bad coping and dysregulation) to the positive score (normal coping and regulation). Compared with the healthy women, after training, the PMS women had lower negative emotion.

Conclusion

These findings suggest that the biofeedback of stress dysregulation effectively improve the stress coping capacity of women with PMS and improve their negative emotion as well.